Category Archives: Raising-Voices

'Last Man Killed' who were the last to die?

The final British soldier to be killed in action was Private George Edwin Ellison. At 9.30 am Pte Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers was scouting on the outskirts of the Belgian town of Mons where German soldiers had been reported in a wood. Almost a million British soldiers had been killed in those intervening years, yet almost miraculously Pte Ellison had so far escaped uninjured. In just over an hour the ceasefire would come into force, the war would be over and Pte Ellison, a former coal miner, would return to the terraced street in Leeds to see his wife Hannah and their four-year-old son James. And then the shot rang out. George was dead - the last British soldier to be killed in action in WWI. A commemorative service was held at Saxton Garden, Leeds, on July 2014.

Sacred Sounds of World War One

You may or may not have heard the buzz surrounding the commemoration of WW1 (it’s been 100 years since those bloody battles) nevertheless, it’s a good enough reason as any to remember to lives of so many soliders caught between clashing political agendas.

Imam Alyas Karmani believes,the construction of a counter narrative to violent jihad should be seen as part of a long-term strategy to combat radicalization and recruitment into Islamist militancy. The counter narrative differs from a counter information campaign in that, more than simply maligning the enemy or challenging its message, it offers an alternative vision to which one opts in; a storyline that gives meaning to the actions it is requesting of the subscriber. This narrative, then, must discredit that of the jihadists—most importantly de-legitimizing the violence they promote—while at the same time making a compelling case for forms of non-violent activism and civic participation. The first step in this process is the deconstruction of the jihadist narrative.

In Britain today there is a mismatch between how non-Muslims often perceive Muslims and how Muslims typically perceive themselves. This disconnect is down to a tendency by non-Muslims to assume that Muslims struggle with their British identity and divided loyalties. These concerns were challenged by a group of Muslim Youth in Hyde Park area where they claim 'Muslims actually identify with Britishness more than any other Britons'. This study is just one of several recent studies that have consistently found that Muslims in Britain express a stronger sense of belonging in Britain than their compatriots. There is, quite frankly, no major issue of Muslims not wanting to be a part of British society. But there is an issue with the common but unspoken xenophobia pervasive in British society that casts Muslims as outsiders. That is why despite Muslims repeatedly pledging their dedication to Britain, a consistent spattering of polls show that many non-Muslim Britons still view Muslims as a potential enemy within.